, 1887-10-07
HE FUTURE oE CHICAGO.
A Prophecy by W. H.. II. M~urray-Can-
ada's Future Population.


A Prophecy by w. II. II. murray-Can-
ada's Future Population.
Chicago is the commercial center of a
surrounding country destined, within a
lifetime, to contain 100, 0Q0, 600 of indus
trious, thrifty, and luxury loving people.
The population of London is to that of
England and Wales as four to twenty-six.
And should the population of Chicago
cver hold the same relation TO the popu-
lation of the ten great states that c~ncircle
and are commercially tributary to her as
London holds to England and Wales her
census will, as surely as the sun rises
owe the p%rairies, show the enormous
total of 20, O0O, 900 OF souls. Nor is this
TO be vastly wondered at when one con-
siders that she is the queen city, the CEN
ter and outlet of such an agricultural
area as can nowhere else be found on the
globe; that she is already the third man
]ufactur:ng city of the continent; that the
total value Of her trade is more thar ST.
600, coo, 900 per year, and that 10, 900
vessels arrived at and sailed from her
wharves last year, with a tonnage of
nearly 5000, 900.
Very well. Now, over the line which
is the boundary between Minnesota and
Canada is a section of country as large as
eleven nlinoises, whose soil is the best on
the earth, and over which shines a most
productive sun. Here is richness of soil;
here is plenty of moisture; here is a most
g%rowthful climate; here is the last unoc-
cupied, and, perhaps, the most productive
wheat belt on the continent. What else
is wauted2 One thing. Give&me one
thing more and l will predict that, in
this great Canada and the west, within
the length of a healthy human life will
be found eleven geographical divisions,
as large, as prosperous and as rich as is
the great state of Illinois today. What
is that one thing? you ask. l answer:
Coal.
In Illinois two feet in every three of
her entire area are underlaid with coal.
A poor man in Illinois can get his coal at
So. 80 a ton. If there had been no coal
there, then could there be no population,
or next to none. Coal was wanted as a
prime condition of the Canadian future,
as measured by the populational possibili-
ties of this vast area of hers, and coal,
coal in abundance, has been found. That
solved the problem of the size of Canada's
future population, for it left it contingent
only ON climate and soil, which are both
perfect. The best wheat bearing belt,
now unoccupied, on the continent; a
healthy climate, popular government and
cheap fuel, these are the auspicious con-
ditions which, joined in happy conjunc-
ton, make an otherwise dark and uncer-
tain future suddenly flame with the
splendor of a summer sunrise when it
comes to the lowers and grasses of the
vast prairie land of which l am speaking,
for they surely and on the instant en-
larged the possibilities, nay, the certain
ties, of Canada as to her future popula-
ton being beyond any fixed measure
ment.
The question may be asked, whence is
this great Canadian population to come?
How is the real Canada to be peopled?
But the Canada that has been, nay,
that is today, is not the real CANADA.
Americans should not forget this. The
real Canada of the future lies not east
and north, but west of Ontario. Winni-
peg, and not Montreal, is the geograph-
ical center. Its commercial center Is not
Toronto, but Chicago. North and west
of Lake Superior lies a vast area of terri
tory as productive as to the nature Of its
soil, and as attractive to civilization as
any equal extent of territory on the face
of the globe. From it eleven states as
large as the great state of Illinois can be
carved. Here more than 20, 900, 900 of
people will, in a few years, compare
lively, find their home.-W. II. H. MUIR
ray in Chicago Herald.